How does the author's decision to include the flashback in Paragraph 3 affect the pacing of this story? The narrator's description of the rescue he witnessed delays the anticipated action of the current mission and adds suspense to the story. The pace of the rescue in the flashback provides the reader an example of how quickly the impending rescue will take. By increasing the pace of the action of the rescue team, the author builds curiosity about the people on the boat that are being rescued. By providing details of the rescue in the flashback, the author can skip over the details of the narrator's rescue and quickly come to the resolution.